If you have just been told by a clinician that you have Prediabetes or Diabetes, for most people it is a bit of a shock. You may or may not have a family history of Diabetes or Prediabetes. The reality is that we are seeing growing numbers of new diagnoses of Diabetics and Prediabetics in the entire population but worryingly more so in younger people.
How do we diagnose Diabetes and Prediabetes?
We use a lab marker called HBA1c which stands for haemoglobin A1c. It involves measuring how “sugary” your blood is. Red blood cells (haemoglobin) survive in your circulatory system for up to 3 months. In that time, the more glucose is hanging around in your blood stream, the more glucose clings to the haemoglobin. This makes HBA1c a good marker for what overall blood glucose control has been like over the past 3 months.
HBA1c between 42 to 47 puts you in the Prediabetes range.
HBA1c of 48 and above puts you in the Diabetes range.
There is no such things as having a “mild touch of Diabetes”. Prediabetes and Diabetes exist on a spectrum of how sugary your blood is. Complications can happen with HBA1cs of 42 and above so it is very important we work together to get your HBA1c below 42 (we like to aim for HBA1c below 40).
More important is understanding that Insulin Resistance underpins Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes. Whilst blood glucose control is important, it is also essential to improve your metabolic health by improving your Insulin Resistance and restoring Insulin Sensitivity.
Click on this link to watch this brief explanation of what Insulin Resistance means: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/US4iYX7cvUs
How do I improve blood glucose control and restore Insulin Sensitivity?
By attending to your 4 pillars of health – Food, Movement, Sleep and Stress. The 4 pillars of health underpin all of human biology and metabolic health.
Whilst medication may help, dealing with foundational basics of Food, Movement, Sleep and Stress is not something we can avoid if you want to restore metabolic health and Insulin Sensitivity. We cannot gain health through taking medication.
Message of Hope
The main message we want to get across is that you can and should aim to reverse Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes (medically we call this putting the condition into remission). Many of our patients succeed in getting their blood glucose back into normal ranges alongside improving metabolic health by adopting lifestyle changes.
We strongly recommend that you sign up for the in-house group sessions titled My Numbers and Me. It involves attending 2 group sessions at Aspen Centre which last 1.5 hours each. Instead of spending 20 minutes in a one-to-one appointment with the Diabetes Nurse, you will spend a total of 3 hours with a Diabetes Nurse or Doctor.
The sessions are packed with information and are a great opportunity to ask lots of questions – questions like “How have I ended up with diabetes/prediabetes?”, “What should I eat?”, “What blood glucose should I be aiming for?”, “What do all these test results mean?”.
To find out more, please click on link below https://www.eatrealfood.uk/diabetesprediabetes
You can also email aspen.diabetes@nhs.net to book a place on the group sessions.
You can also check out all the information on our lifestyle website https://www.eatrealfood.uk/homepage
What is the difference between Type 2 and Type 1 Diabetes?
At the simplest level, you can regard Type 1 Diabetes as disease with too little insulin (therefore Type 1 Diabetics must have insulin or they will die). Generally there has been an autoimmune attack of your pancreas in Type 1 Diabetes destroying the tissues which produce Insulin. Whereas Type 2 Diabetes is a disease of too much insulin (we call this Hyperinsulinaemia) and Insulin Resistance.
In Type 2 Diabetes, because your cells are insulin resistant, every time you eat the foods which spike your blood glucose, the pancreas responds by pushing out more insulin in attempt to lower the blood glucose. But the more insulin is in the system, the more insulin resistant you become (it’s a vicious circle).
Day in, day out for many years, your pancreas starts to become worn-out and eventually will not produce insulin. This is usually a very advanced stage of the disease and at this point, you will have no choice but to have insulin injections in order to lower your blood glucose.
We need to work together to restore Insulin Sensitivity and lower insulin levels to preserve your pancreatic function and this is chiefly done through lifestyle measures. Ideally we start this process early enough to avoid pancreatic “burnout”.
Type 1 Diabetics can develop Insulin Resistance too. Neither Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetics can eat anything they want to all the time – arguably, no one can. For both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetics, understanding what affects your blood glucose is an essential part of gaining control and taking charge of your health.
For both Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes, it is possible to put your blood glucose back into normal range through lifestyle changes. The difference is that Type 1 Diabetics must do this alongside taking insulin. You cannot “cure” Diabetes but you can put your blood glucose into normal range (and keep it there) if you know what to do. We hope you will start your journey to regain your health today.
